Who else could take a perfectly good web page, cover it with perfectly good (digital) ink, and make the combination... this?

August 25, 2008

Off to pursue the American Dream

I know I've just started, but there will be no blog updates for at least a week, probably closer to two. Yeah, I'm going back to Burning Man. It's been two years since I went and took these photos, and I still had not yet written about the experience.

For the longest time, I wasn't ready. Too much happened to me after I got back, and some of that personal turmoil was triggered directly by Burning Man and my reaction to it. It's also difficult to describe to somebody who's never been, and even the official website's explanation is rather coy. There's the popular perception: a bunch of naked hippies in the desert, burning shit and thoroughly enjoying inordinate amounts of sex, drugs, and incessant techno. Certainly, like most caricatures, there is a degree of truth to that image (and I have to admit that the attractiveness of the naked people can be described by a disappointingly normal distribution).

But like a lot of things in life, everybody's experience is different, and what you get out of it depends a lot upon what you put in. A lot of people do go purely to have a lot of wild fun, and if that's what you're looking for, you will find it in spades. But not everybody is out there doing drugs or having sex or dancing to techno, and people are (for the most part) not pressured to do so. As long as you don't interfere with other people's enjoyment of the event, you are completely free to do whatever you want, even if it's just sitting in your camp chair all day, enjoying the respite from the incessant flow of electronic information and communication from "the real world."

To me, the event is primarily a sociological or a social psychological experiment. Burning Man bills itself as an experiment in temporary community, and what I found most striking was the incredible degree of freedom for creativity that the words "experiment" and "temporary" open up when creating within the medium of "community." As most people recognize, your personality, identity, and outlook are all heavily influenced by the culture you are brought up in. After all, we live in an age of globalization with events like the Olympics showcasing various cultures (albeit overshadowed by the promotion of nationalism, so I'm not too surprised to hear of incidents of racism). However, there is nothing like being immersed in a truly alien culture to really understand the degree of this influence.

While you can probably get that from living abroad for a while, the temporary nature of the Burning Man experiment lends itself to some cultural norms that you just can't see anywhere else. For example, there's the "gift economy," where you cannot buy or sell anything, but are encouraged to give freely. As an econ geek, I was certainly skeptical about this, as it struck me as pure wishful thinking by anti-capitalist liberals. Perhaps that's how the idea originated, but I now see it as part of the temporary experiment (and I hope burners understand that it wouldn't do a good job of allocating resources towards scarcity in "the real world").

This cultural norm, combined with living in an extremely harsh environment, becomes extremely contagious. Initially, it stems from the desire to fit into a community where everybody gives what they can to others freely, often without being asked. Before long, you cannot help but want to give, and then it causes you immense joy when you are able to contribute. Soon it becomes second nature, and you view it simply as the way things work, and a world that doesn't work that way seems so alien (indeed, I found reentry to "the real world" to be incredibly jarring and disorienting for days). Although it's not exactly a blueprint of how things could actually work, it does certainly open your eyes to new possibilities.

Likewise, there's the norm of "Leave No Trace Behind." This is actually not
some environmentalist thing. The event itself could hardly be considered green, considering the amount of gas consumed by the fire-themed artworks and to get so many people out to the middle of nowhere, let alone the sheer mass of all the stuff that's burned out there. No, cleaning up after itself is simply what Burning Man has to do in order to be allowed to use the playa every year. Of course, since cultural norms are a powerful way to mold behavior, it's an effective way to get everybody to clean up after themselves to leave a lot less work for the volunteers.

There are very few rules, and enforcement is done by volunteers and is rather hands-off. And while there are bound to be some people who behave badly in such a large community, for the most part, it works quite well and does not devolve into chaos and anarchy. Such is the power of cultural norms and social pressure. And while it may sound cult-like, it would be a cult without the religion, charismatic leader, and intense pressure not to leave. Burning Man is not about conformity; it's about you being free to be yourself.

While it definitely changes the way you look at the world and yourself, the main
purpose centers around art, both as expression and as experience. The result can only be described as a celebration of the triumph of
both individual expression and the spirit of cooperation. As may be apparent in these digital pages, I am trying to get more in touch with my artistic and creative side as I explore various possibilities for my life, and perhaps I'll find some answers out there on the playa, or at least some new insights. So I plan to go, to participate where I can, and to contribute in the way I think I can contribute best, which is to document and, in so doing, hopefully create art myself.

And if any of you happen to be going, I can be found at Camp Wonton-amo Bay at 4:30 and Corvair. Look for the Asian guy with blue hair.

I have a master's in economics at San Jose State, have taught Principles of Economics there, and now work in educational technology (which dovetails nicely with my former career as a software engineer).